I never did find out who gave me the watch. Never really found out why. Oh yes, I knew I was meant to save the books from complete obliteration and whatnot, but I never knew for certain why I was chosen, or how. I never knew how the watch worked. I never knew why it was Ranger's Apprentice that was in danger. All I knew was that I was a quiet girl who loved books much more than people. But then I suppose that's the way with most stories. The main character is typically the odd one out in some sense.

I guess the reason I'm writing this is to make sense of it all. I'll never quite understand why this all happened to me, but I figured I might as well share my story. You probably won't believe me. You'll think this is just a cute little fanfic. But thats okay. I'm not writing it for you. I just need to get it out there.

It started on what would be considered a normal day for any american teen. Go to school at too-early o'clock, go to class, do work, get stressed about stuff. I'm not going to go into the details because that's boring, and a lot of you probably go through the same thing every day. The only unusual thing on that particular day was that my mom was running a little late picking me up. Me being me, I decided to spend the time I would be waiting in the library.

I don't like a lot about my highschool, but the one thing I have always loved is our library. It's bigger than most school libraries, and I have a lot of good memories of that place. Today I was wandering among the shelves. Just being there always calmed me down, and I felt a sense of contentment. I let my hand brush against the books as I slowly passed.

As I was making my way through the shelves, a book caught my eye. Ranger's Apprentice, I read. I'd never heard of it, but for some reason I felt a sort of connection. It was almost like the book was an old friend, similar to the way I felt about Harry Potter, or Narnia, even though I'd never seen it before. Taking a closer look, I saw that it was the first in what appeared to be a very long series. I smiled. I had always loved long series because they gave me more time to grow attached to the characters, and let them develop more and go on different adventures.

I picked up the book, and read the title. The Ruins of Gorlan. In the back of my mind, I knew that I didn't have time to read, I was already way behind in math and I would be in biology too if I didn't do a lot of homework this weekend. But I'd never been the best at listening to the voice of reason, so I opened the book. To my surprise, on the front page there was a note.

Dear Gwen,

You are needed. The stories are being destroyed. The characters need you. Look in your bag, in the front pocket, and you will find the tool you'll need to save them. Please hurry. They are counting on you.

A friend

What had me more confused than the odd note (which was in and of itself weird, considering it was written in pen in a library book; seriously who does that?) was the fact that it was my name that had been written. I would have wondered if it was one of my friends, but I didn't really have any, and even if I did, how would they magically be aware that I would pick up that book on that day? I didn't have much time to think about this, because it was then that I got a text from my mom telling me that she was here.

I pondered the book for a minute. I knew I should just leave it alone. It wasn't like the note was actually written for me. Real life didn't work like stories. You didn't get magically chosen for magical adventures. It was probably meant for someone else as a joke or something. But at the same time, I couldn't help but harbor the hope that somehow, I was wrong. I wanted nothing more than for reality to provide me with an adventure. So, giving way to that impossible hope, I checked the book out.

Fifteen minutes later, I was in my room in the comfy chair I had gotten for my birthday. The book was open in my hand, and I read the note once more. I didn't understand how the stories were being destroyed, or why the characters would need me, considering they were a figment of someone's imagination put on paper. But I knew how to find out if this note was really meant for me. According to this, there would be something in my front pocket on my backpack.

I slid it over to me, turning it so I had access to the aforementioned pocket. Nervously, I unzipped it. As I reached my hand into the pocket I felt something. Something cool and smooth and round. I pulled it out and found in my hand a silver pocket watch. It had no markings of any kind, and no chain. It had a nice weight, and fit comfortably into my hand. The metal was smooth and cool.

Now I was more confused than ever. Yes, I had always considered pocket watches to be some sort of magical item, perfect for any story. But once again, this was reality, and reality didn't work like that. This did seem to confirm that the note was meant for me, seeing as I had never seen it before, but even so, I had no clue how some pocket watch was meant to help me save anything. I pressed the button on the top, causing it to flip open.

Nothing happened.

Inside, it appeared to be a completely ordinary watch. It ticked away the time as I watched, trying to make some sense of this whole thing. Finally, I set the watch down on my desk, and proceeded to open the book. Maybe there would be more notes in it that explained it all to me.

I turned to the first chapter, and began to read. Almost immediately, I felt extremely dizzy. My room seemed to spin around me. My vision went all fuzzy, as if I had stood up too fast. I couldn't see, couldn't move, couldn't think.

As suddenly as it had come, the dizzy feeling subsided. As my vision cleared, I quickly realized that I was not in my room. I wasn't in my comfy chair next to my desk holding a book. I was sitting on a wooden chair at a table, in a room dimly lit by torches, surrounded by people I didn't know at all.

"Try to eat something, Will. Tomorrow's a big day after all." The speaker was a cheerful looking girl with blond hair. She was a little on the chubby side, but it didn't detract at all from her beauty, and suited her quite well. Jenny. Her name came unbidden to my mind as she gestured toward the boy next to me, Will I assumed.

I almost did a double take when I saw him. He looked so similar to me, we could have been siblings. Twins, even. He was my size (that's to say, unusually small), and had a curly mop of brown hair that rivaled my own in both curliness and messiness. Our noses were identical, and the nervous look on his face was exactly the same as the one I'd worn myself all too often. He attempted to return the smile, but it came out as more of a grimace.

"Nerves, I imagine," said a thin, gangly boy. George, the name came to me again, as if I'd known him all my life, which was frightening, seeing as I didn't. He set down his loaded fork and seized the lapels of his jacket in a judicious manner. "Dreadful thing, nervousness. It can just freeze you up so you can't think, can't eat, can't speak."

"I'm not nervous," Will said quickly, as a third boy, Horace had looked up, ready to form a sarcastic comment, like always. Wait, what was that? I thought. Like always? I just got here. I don't know where I am or who these people are.

As I was busy having a slight mental break down, George nodded several times, considering Will's statement. "On the other hand," he added, "a little nervousness can actually improve performance. It can heighten your perceptions and sharpen your reactions. So, the fact that you are worried, if, in fact, you are, is not necessarily something to be worried about, of itself-so to speak."

Even though I had probably finally cracked, and was imagining the scenario in front of me, I couldn't help but smile. That was just such a quintessentially George thing to say. Will was also smiling, and I once again marveled at how similar the expression was to my own.

"He ought to be nervous!" Horace scoffed. "After all, which Craftmaster is going to want him as an apprentice?" As quickly as they came, our twin smiles were gone. As will frowned down at his plate, I glared at Horace, doing my best to convey that even though he was twice my size and probably four times my weight, I would fight him and destroy him. I felt a slight satisfaction at the hint of nervousness in his eyes.

"I'm sure we're all nervous," Alyss, tall willowy and graceful, said. She directed one of her rare smiles at Will. "We'd be stupid not to be."

"Well, I'm not!" Horace said, then reddened as Alyss raised one eyebrow and Jenny giggled. I smirked. Sure when it came to physical battles Horace might hold his own, but when it was a battle of the wits, he made it too easy.

"Still planning on applying for Battleschool, Will?" he asked, doing his best to avert the attention away from his blunder. "Better eat something then. You'll need to build yourself up a little."

He snorted with laughter and Will glowered at him.

"You should probably watch yourself, Horace. You won't get into battleschool if you're too round to pull yourself onto a horse," I said quietly. Horace's face flushed angrily, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Will smirking.

"Yes, well unlike you, pipsqueak, I'm actually growing. And when that happens, you need to eat more. Especially if you want to build muscle," he said, turning his attention back to Will. "You need muscles to get into Battleschool, Will. Real muscles."

"Particularly between the ears," Will replied and, unfortunately, Jenny couldn't refrain from giggling. Horace's face flushed and he started to rise from his seat. But Will was quicker and he was already at the door before Horace could disentangle himself from his chair.

"That's right! Run away, Will No-Name! You're a no-name and nobody will want you as an apprentice!" I felt the heat rise in my cheeks at the insult. Without a word, I stood up suddenly, and followed Will out the door.

I could tell the other kids had been uncomfortable with the rising tension between the three of us, but at the time, I didn't care. I didn't care that these battles were constantly happening between us. I didn't care that it disrupted and annoyed the others when I fought back. I wasn't about to let that bully pick on my brother!

Wait, brother? I thought. Where did that come from? He can't be my brother, I don't even know him! I just got here! I haven't even had a proper conversation with him! Yet even as I thought it, I knew I was right. I had just gotten here, but even as I thought about the book and the school library and the pocket watch, it felt like a dream that was quickly fading away. Will was my brother. My twin brother to be exact.

I remembered growing up with him. I remembered our time in the ward. I remembered our fights with Horace. I remembered Alyss and Jenny and George. I remembered how nervous we were for Choosing Day. Oh, gosh, Choosing Day. Choosing day was tomorrow, and I still had no idea what I was going to do. Even though the others didn't acknowledge it too much, I was in even more of a predicament than Will. At least he had some idea of what he wanted to do.

I didn't have the slightest inkling of what might be a possibility. I supposed I wasn't too bad at writing, but I wrote stories, and the idea of having to learn how to write legal documents made my brain want to melt out of my ears, because that would be less painful, so Scribeschool was out. I couldn't be a diplomat, because though I could be witty, I was the opposite of tactful, and I often stumbled over my words when I tried to read out loud as I would have to do often if I was a diplomat. Not to mention my general fear of people.

Battleschool and Horseschool and the Armory didn't accept girls (though why was beyond me. Probably something about sexist tradition). And Master Chubbs vowed to kill me if I ever set foot in the kitchen again after a certain incident involving nearly setting the castle on fire.

As my thoughts raced, I found myself outside of the castle, and in front of the fig tree that had become my and Will's secret hideout of sorts over the years. It provided a sanctuary from Horace when we were fighting, and the others never were able to find us when we climbed to its highest branches.

I climbed up easily, as if I'd been doing this all my life, Which I had been, I reminded myself, trying to shake these strange thoughts from my head. I made it to my usual perch, and found Will nearby. Evidently, he'd had the same idea, which didn't surprise me at all. It had become a habit to climb this tree whenever we were upset and felt like being alone (being with each other counted as being alone).

"What are we gonna do, Will?" I asked, unable to keep the nervousness from my tone. He looked at me, and I once again recognized the same anxious look I'd seen all too often on my own face.

"I don't know, Gwen," he answered.

Not long after we'd left, Alyss came looking for us, but she didn't know of our hiding spot, and so, didn't see us. We sat there in silence for hours, both of us too caught up in our own thoughts and fears to properly comfort the other. As we watched, the lights of the castle went out one by one. The last one was the Baron in his study, who was probably working on important reports and stuff that came with managing an entire fief. At long last, even he went to bed, leaving us the only ones in the entire castle who were awake.

"Come on, Gwen," Will said at last. "We need to go to bed." He began to climb down the tree, and I followed. I didn't want to go to bed. Maybe if I never fell asleep, I wouldn't have to face the Choosing tomorrow, that would most likely condemn me to a life of farm work with no guarantee that even Will would stay with me. We could be sent to different farms. What would happen then? I'd be completely alone, and then worked to death. I was completely terrified of what tomorrow would bring as we made our way back into the ward dorms, but somehow, I managed to fall asleep.

Hello to anyone who happens upon this story (or anyone who read the original and for some reason stuck around)! So as you may or may not know, I tried to write this a while ago, but being a young and relatively inexperienced writer at the time, I didn't do it very well and didn't get very far. But the thing is, every time I read Ranger's Apprentice, I kept getting ideas for this story, so we're gonna try this again. I have made quite a lot of changes, and hopefully, you'll like them and they'll make the story better. Anyways, let me know what you think!

-Winter